Romney outlines governing plan

POWELL, Ohio — Mitt Romney conceded President Barack Obama has succeeded in making him a less likable person, but he offered a defiant retort to those hoping he will open up this week: “I am who I am.”

Romney quoted that Popeye line three times in a 30-minute interview with POLITICO about his leadership style and philosophy, swatting away advice from Republicans to focus on connecting with voters in a more emotional, human way at this convention. Instead, he vowed to keep his emphasis — in the campaign and any administration to follow — on a relentlessly goal-driven, business-minded approach that has shaped his life so far.

“I know there are some people who do a very good job acting and pretend they’re something they’re not,” Romney said. “You get what you see. I am who I am.”

To press the point, he said the GOP would even try to turn Obama’s still-high personal favorability rankings back on him at its convention this week, by making the simple case to voters: nice guy, failed president.

“I don’t think everybody likes me,” Romney said. “I don’t believe that, by any means. But I do believe that people of this country are looking for someone who can get the country growing again with more jobs and more take-home pay, and I think they realize this president had four years to do that. … He got every piece of legislation he wanted passed, and it didn’t work. I think they want someone who has a different record, and I do.”

Romney pledged to bring corporate order to the West Wing. He promised to issue a checklist for his first 100 days, similar to the printed scorecard he used in Massachusetts; treat his Cabinet like a board of directors; and try to restart the economy using the hands-on management style that made him hundreds of millions of dollars.

Romney’s answers were the clearest window yet into how the lessons he gained in the corporate world would be applied to the presidency. He revealed, for the first time, how some of those views were shaped, saying:

Bill Bain, the founder of Bain Capital, and J.W. “Bill” Marriott, a fellow Mormon and the CEO of the hotel chain carrying his name, are the most effective leaders he has ever been around: “I learned leadership by watching people.”

Biographies, not business books, inspire his thinking, saying “tears welled up” when he finished reading David McCullough’s work on John Adams.

His Cabinet would be dominated by people from the private sector, citing Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard as a model for female leaders he would like to surround himself with.

Debra L. Lee, the CEO of Black Entertainment Television, is also a leader he would take a close look at, though he couldn’t recall her name, just her title: “From all reports, a highly effective manager.”

He rarely spends time thinking through past decisions or missteps made, which is one reason he has no regrets about the “birth certificate” joke: “I don’t look back. I don’t look back.”

Still, during the interview, Romney made plain he is tired of the criticism that he is stiff, distant or not broadly liked by voters.